Vegan Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Me: “Ooh I could do it! I could make vegan mashed potatoes and gravy!”

*collective “uhhh” around the room and frowns of disgust*

So apparently I’ve been living around such a bubble of Bernie Sanders-supporting, tree-hugging millennials that I forgot about how vegans are perceived by much of America. And having lived a mostly-vegan life for the last few months, and having realized how cool it can be (see my full rant here) – the speed and force of rejection annoyed me for quite a bit.

And still does, I suppose, considering I’m sitting in my bed at 12:30am typing about it two weeks later.

Anyway, I set out to prove them wrong. I made the following gravy recipe – which was certified delicious by several meat-eaters of the group, by the way – and I was actually surprised at how great it tasted. And then I made too much. And then, post Friendsgiving, I decided to make mashed potatoes to go with all that leftover gravy.

And I was happy. And all was right in the world.

Vegan Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

This 1000% tastes better than normal mashed potatoes and gravy. It’s fluffy, savory, garlicky, salty, and has many different layers of flavor – a quality you don’t find with traditional mashed potatoes and gravy.

1. Prepare the potaotes. Skin and cut the potatoes and boil them. Boil them for about 20 minutes until they’re super mushy and easy to mash. (Hint: I like to let the water slowly boil off, so I can just mash the potatoes straight in the pot. If they end up too watery and mushy, I’ll let the pot sit for a bit longer so more water can evaporate off.)

2. Meanwhile, cook the garlic in oil until the oil is nice and fragrant. Add these to the potatoes, along with salt and pepper, after the potatoes are done and mashed.

3. Prepare the gravy. Turn the stove to high and sauté the onion in oil until the onion is soft and tender, which takes around 3 minutes.

4. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add flour to the sautéed onion. Make sure you coat the onion evenly, with no chunks of flour sitting around.

5. Add vegetable broth, soy sauce, nutritional yeast (optional), and almond milk (optional). Let it all simmer down to your desired level of gravy-ness before seasoning with salt and pepper.

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And that’s it! Once you’ve been through this amazing recipe a few times, you’ll be able to whip up this whole thing in half an hour or less.

So the next time your friends make fun of you for being a vegan, push back with this recipe.

Boom. Empowering vegans so they’ll make good food and therefore be socially accepted by their friends. Just another day at Kitchen Cici.